Common industry practice for assembly of lens systems relies upon assembly of individual discrete lens elements with respect to one another for each individual lens system. This technique is useful for lens systems comprising a large lens elements, but is very difficult to use when lens elements are very small (less than 1 mm in diameter). Manufacturing many lens elements on a common carrier called a lens array streamlines the manufacture of the lens elements.
It is known to attach arrays of optical elements to electronic modules. Such assemblies have been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,469, entitled "Microelectronic module having optical and electrical interconnects", and U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,831, entitled "Optical module having self-aligned optical element and optical wave-guide by means of bumps on rectangular pads and method of assembling thereof". However, the methods described in these patents are not optimal for creating single (i.e., individual) lens systems at a later time. Furthermore, many of the methods used to attach lens elements to electronic modules rely upon solder balls for alignment. Use of solder balls requires extra steps of patterning, solder deposition, and solder re-flow.